Coal geology and assessment of resources and reserves in the Little Snake River Coal Field and Red Desert Assessment Area, Greater Green River Basin, Wyoming
David C. Scott, Brian N. Shaffer, Jon E. Haacke, Paul E. Pierce, Scott A. Kinney
2019, Professional Paper 1836
The U.S. Geological Survey is studying regional-scale assessments of resources and reserves of primary coal beds in the major coal bed basins in the United States to help formulate policy for Federal, State, and local energy and land use. This report summarizes the geology and coal resources and reserves in...
Using maintenance records from a long-term sensor monitoring network to evaluate the relationship between maintenance schedule and data quality
Donald R. Schoolmaster Jr., Sarai Piazza
2019, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (192)
Sensor-based environmental monitoring networks are beginning to provide the large-scale, long-term data required to address important fundamental and applied questions in ecology. However, the data quality from deployed sensors can be difficult and costly to ensure. In this study, we use maintenance records from the 12-year history of Louisiana’s Coastwide...
Understanding tidal marsh trajectories: Evaluation of multiple indicators of marsh persistence
Kerstin Wasson, Neil K. Ganju, Zafer Defne, Charlie Endris, Tracy Elsey-Quirk, Karen M. Thorne, Chase M. Freeman, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Daniel J. Nowacki, Kenneth B. Raposa
2019, Environmental Research Letters (14)
Robust assessments of ecosystem stability are critical for informing conservation and management decisions. Tidal marsh ecosystems provide vital services, yet are globally threatened by anthropogenic alterations to physical and biological processes. A variety of monitoring and modeling approaches have been undertaken to determine which tidal marshes are likely to persist...
The seasonal energetic landscape of an apex marine carnivore, the polar bear
Anthony M. Pagano, Todd C. Atwood, George M. Durner, Terrie M. Williams
2019, Ecology
Divergent movement strategies have enabled wildlife populations to adapt to environmental change. In recent decades, the Southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) has developed a divergent movement strategy in response to diminishing sea ice where the majority of the subpopulation (73–85%) stays on the sea ice in...
Simulated water-table and pond-level responses to proposed public water-supply withdrawals in the Hyannis Ponds Wildlife Management Area, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Denis R. LeBlanc, Timothy D. McCobb, Jeffrey R. Barbaro
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5121
The glacial kettle ponds in the Hyannis Ponds Wildlife Management Area in Barnstable, Massachusetts, support a community of rare and endangered plants. The ponds are hydraulically connected to the unconfined aquifer that underlies Cape Cod. The plants are adapted to the rise and fall of water levels in the ponds...
Use of subsistence-harvested whale carcasses by polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea
Kate M Lillie, Eric M Gese, Todd C. Atwood, Mary M Conner
2019, Arctic (72) 337-484
The availability of a food subsidy has the potential to influence the condition, behavior, fitness, and population dynamics of a species. Since the early 2000s, monitoring efforts along the coast of northern Alaska indicated a higher proportion of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) of the southern Beaufort Sea (SB) subpopulation come...
User's guide for the national hydrography dataset plus (NHDPlus) high resolution
Richard B. Moore, Lucinda D. McKay, Alan H. Rea, Timothy R. Bondelid, Curtis V. Price, Thomas G. Dewald, Craig M. Johnston
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1096
The National Hydrography Dataset Plus High Resolution (NHDPlus HR) is a scalable geospatial hydrography framework built from the High Resolution (1:24,000-scale or better) National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), nationally complete Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD), and ⅓-arc-second (10-meter ground spacing) 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) digital elevation model (DEM) data. The NHDPlus HR...
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Thick-billed Longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii)
Jill A. Shaffer, Lawrence D. Igl, Douglas H. Johnson, Marriah L. Sondreal, Christopher M. Goldade, Paul A. Rabie, Travis L. Wooten, Betty R. Euliss
2019, Professional Paper 1842-Y
The key to Thick-billed Longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii) management is providing short, sparsely vegetated native grasslands of adequate size. Mixed-grass prairies can be made suitable for breeding Thick-billed Longspurs by implementing moderate-to-heavy or season-long grazing. Thick-billed Longspurs have been reported to use habitats with 5–42 centimeters (cm) average...
Migrating bison engineer the green wave
Chris Geremia, Jerod Merkle, Daniel R. Eacker, Rick L. Wallen, P. J. White, Mark Hebblewhite, Matthew J. Kauffman
2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (116) 25707-25713
Newly emerging plants provide the best forage for herbivores. To exploit this fleeting resource, migrating herbivores align their movements to surf the wave of spring green-up. With new technology to track migrating animals, the Green Wave Hypothesis has steadily gained empirical support across a diversity of...
Simulating land cover change impacts on groundwater recharge under selected climate projections, Maui, Hawaiʻi
Laura Brewington, Victoria Keener, Alan Mair
2019, Remote Sensing (11)
This project developed an integrated land cover/hydrological modeling framework using remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) data, stakeholder input, climate information and projections, and empirical data to estimate future groundwater recharge on the Island of Maui, Hawaiʻi, USA. End-of-century mean annual groundwater recharge was estimated under...
Deglacial water-table decline in Southern California recorded by noble gas isotopes
Alan M. Seltzer, Jessica Ng, Wesley R. Danskin, Justin T. Kulongoski, Riley Gannon, Martin Stute, Jeffery P. Severinghaus
2019, Nature Communications (10)
Constraining the magnitude of past hydrological change may improve understanding and predictions of future shifts in water availability. Here we demonstrate that water-table depth, a sensitive indicator of hydroclimate, can be quantitatively reconstructed using Kr and Xe isotopes in groundwater. We present the first-ever measurements of these dissolved noble gas...
Evaluation of Potential Translocation Sites for an Imperiled Cyprinid, theHornyhead Chub
Brian T. Hickerson, Annika W. Walters
2019, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (39) 205-218
Translocation of isolated species into suitable habitats may help secure vulnerable, geographically limited species. Due to the decline of Wyoming Hornyhead Chub Nocomis biguttatus, conservation actions such as translocation of populations within the plausible historical range are being considered to improve population redundancy and resiliency to disturbance events. Translocation of...
Time to branch out? Application of hierarchical survival models in plant phenology
Sarah Elmendorf, Theresa Crimmins, Katharine L. Gerst, Jake Weltzin
2019, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology (279)
The sensitivity of phenology to environmental drivers can vary across geography and species. As such, models developed to predict phenology are typically site- or taxon-specific. Generation of site- and taxon-specific models is limited by the intensive in-situ phenological monitoring effort required to generate sufficient data to parameterize each model. Where...
High rates of inflation during a noneruptive episode of seismic unrest at Semisopochnoi Volcano, Alaska in 2014–2015
Kimberly Degrandpre, Jeremy D. Pesicek, Zhong Lu, Heather R. DeShon, Diana Roman
2019, Journal of Geophysical Research (20) 6163-6186
Magma intrusion rate is a key parameter in eruption triggering but is poorly quantified in existing geodetic studies. Here we examine two episodes of rapid inflation in this context. Two noneruptive microseismic swarms were recorded at Semisopochnoi Volcano, Alaska in 2014–2015. We use differential SAR techniques and TerraSAR‐X images to...
Validating a landsat time-series of fractional component cover across western U.S. Rangelands
Matthew B. Rigge, Collin G. Homer, Hua Shi, Debra K. Meyer
2019, Remote Sensing (11)
Western U.S. rangelands have been quantified as six fractional cover (0%–100%) components over the Landsat archive (1985–2018) at a 30 m resolution, termed the “Back-in-Time” (BIT) dataset. Robust validation through space and time is needed to quantify product accuracy. Here, we used field data collected concurrently with high-resolution satellite (HRS) images...
Depth to bedrock based on modeling of gravity data of the eastern part of Edwards Air Force Base, California
Victoria Langenheim, Andrew Morita, Allen H. Christensen, Geoffrey Cromwell, Christopher P. Ely
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1128
We describe a gravity survey acquired to determine the thickness of basin-fill deposits (depth to bedrock) and to delineate geologic structures that might influence groundwater flow beneath the eastern part of Edwards Air Force Base, California. Inversion of these gravity data combined with geologic map and well information provides an...
Response of tidal marsh vegetation to pulsed increases in flooding and nitrogen
Meagan M McCoy, Taylor M Sloey, Rebecca J. Howard, Mark W. Hester
2019, Wetlands Ecology and Management (28) 119-135
Worldwide, human activities have modified hydrology and nutrient loading regimes in coastal wetlands. Understanding the interplay between these drivers and subsequent response of wetland plant communities is essential to informing wetland management and restoration efforts. Recent restoration strategies in Louisiana proposes to use sediment diversions from the Mississippi River to...
Developing and optimizing shrub parameters representing sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems in the Northern Great Basin using the Ecosystem Demography (EDv2.2) model
Karun Pandit, Hamid Dasthi, Nancy Glenn, Alejandro Flores, Kaitlin C. Maguire, Douglas J. Shinneman, Gerald Flerchinger, Aaron Fellow
2019, Geoscientific Model Development (12) 4585-4601
Ecosystem dynamic models are useful for understanding ecosystem characteristics over time and space because of their efficiency over direct field measurements and applicability to broad spatial extents. Their application, however, is challenging due to internal model uncertainties and complexities arising from distinct qualities of the ecosystems being analyzed. The sagebrush-steppe...
Generation of lamprey monoclonal antibodies (Lampribodies) using the phage display system
Khan M A Hassan, John D. Hansen, Brantley R Herrin, Chris T Amemiya
2019, Biomolecules (9)
The variable lymphocyte receptors (VLRs) consist of leucine rich repeats (LRRs) and comprise the humoral antibodies produced by lampreys and hagfishes. The diversity of the molecules is generated by stepwise genomic rearrangements of LRR cassettes dispersed throughout the VLRB locus. Previously, target-specific monovalent VLRB antibodies were isolated from sea lamprey...
High-resolution and accurate topography reconstruction of Mount Etna from Pleiades satellite data
Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Marina Bisson, Claudia Spinetti, Maria Fabrizia Buongiorno, Oleg Alexandrov, Thomas Cecere
2019, Remote Sensing (11)
The areas characterized by dynamic and rapid morphological changes need accurate topography information with frequent updates, especially if these are populated and involve infrastructures. This is particularly true in active volcanic areas such as Mount (Mt.) Etna, located in the northeastern portion of Sicily, Italy. The Mt. Etna volcano is...
A pragmatic approach for comparing species distribution models to increasing confidence in managing piping plover habitat
Brooke Maslo, Sara L. Zeigler, Evan Drake, Todd Pover, Nathaniel G. Plant
2019, Conservation Science and Practice (2)
Conservation management often requires decision-making without perfect knowledge of the at-risk species or ecosystem. Species distribution models (SDMs) are useful but largely under-utilized due to model uncertainty. We provide a case study that utilizes an ensemble modeling approach of two independently derived SDMs to explicitly address common modeling impediments and...
Recent sandy deposits at five northern California coastal wetlands — Stratigraphy, diatoms, and implications for storm and tsunami hazards
Eileen Hemphill-Haley, Harvey M. Kelsey, Nicholas Graehl, Michael Casso, Dylan Caldwell, Casey Loofbourrow, Michelle Robinson, Jessica Vermeer, Edward Southwick
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5111
A recent geological record of inundation by tsunamis or storm surges is evidenced by deposits found within the first few meters of the modern surface at five wetlands on the northern California coast. The study sites include three locations in the Crescent City area (Marhoffer Creek marsh, Elk Creek wetland,...
Multiorder hydrologic position in the conterminous United States: A set of metrics in support of groundwater mapping at regional and national scales
Kenneth Belitz, Richard B. Moore, Terri Arnold, Jennifer B. Sharpe, J. Jeffrey Starn
2019, Water Resources Research (55) 11188-11207
The location of a point on the landscape within a stream network (hydrologic position) can be an important predictive measure in hydrology. Hydrologic position is defined here by two metrics: lateral position and distance from stream to divide, both measured horizontally. Lateral position (dimensionless) is the relative...
Machine learning classifiers for attributing tephra to source volcanoes: An evaluation of methods for Alaska tephras
Matthew Bolton, Britta Jensen, Kristi L. Wallace, Nore Praet, David Fortin, Darrell Kaufman, Marc De Batist
2019, Journal of Quaternary Science (35) 81-92
Glass composition-based correlations of volcanic ash (tephra) traditionally rely on extensive manual plotting. Many previous statistical methods for testing correlations are limited by using geochemical means, masking diagnostic variability. We suggest that machine learning classifiers can expedite correlation, quickly narrowing the list of likely candidates...
Overall methodology design for the United States National Land Cover Database 2016 products
Suming Jin, Collin Homer, Limin Yang, Patrick Danielson, Jon Dewitz, Congcong Li, Zhe Zhu, George Z. Xian, Danny Howard
2019, Remote Sensing (11)
The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2016 provides a suite of data products, including land cover and land cover change of the conterminous United States from 2001 to 2016, at two- to three-year intervals. The development of this product is part of an effort to meet the growing demand...
